The Year in QuestionsOne hundred and eighteen questions, and a fiendish election table, on the incidents, accidents, hints and allegations that defined 2008. An annual quiz by Ben Schott. Part II | PDF: Full Quiz (answers will be posted on Jan. 1).

Iran Activating Its Proxies BY: Olivier Guitta | The Middle East Times After the six-month truce with Israel expired on Dec. 19, Hamas decided, or perhaps was urged, to resume its attacks on Israel. Thus Hamas went on a rampage campaign, firing rockets at Israel to create terror and death among Israeli civilians. A new war in the region is likely to benefit only one country: Iran.

Onwards and upwardsTen years of the euro: as the currency enters its second decade, the value of membership is clearer than ever

Medvedev’s assertiveness troubles Putin Kremlin watchers say the Russian president appears to be frustrated that, in spite of his constitutional power as commander in chief, he is stuck in a subordinate role

Minorities, Displacement and Iraq's FutureBrookings Institution This 20-page presentation analyzes the relationship between minorities and displacement, with a particular emphasis on the case of Iraq’s smaller minorities

The Year in Questions One hundred and eighteen questions, and a fiendish election table, on the incidents, accidents, hints and allegations that defined 2008. An annual quiz by Ben Schott. Part II | PDF: Full Quiz (answers will be posted on Jan. 1).

How could a single unit of AIG cause the giant company's near-ruin and become a fulcrum of the global financial crisis? By straying from its own rules for managing risk and then failing to anticipate the consequences.

The Soviet menaceRichard Norton-Taylor: Thirty years ago, in an age of potboilers about a third world war, James Callaghan was terrified by the threat posed by Russia

H7 Iran Activating Its Proxies BY: Olivier Guitta | The Middle East Times After the six-month truce with Israel expired on Dec. 19, Hamas decided, or perhaps was urged, to resume its attacks on Israel. Thus Hamas went on a rampage campaign, firing rockets at Israel to create terror and death among Israeli civilians. A new war in the region is likely to benefit only one country: Iran.

Minorities, Displacement and Iraq's FutureBrookings Institution This 20-page presentation analyzes the relationship between minorities and displacement, with a particular emphasis on the case of Iraq’s smaller minorities

Analysis: U.S. needs for language critical (UPI) -- America's global competitiveness and national security could be at risk because of a failure to invest in critical foreign language education. Deficiencies in Middle Eastern and Asian languages pose the most immediate problems. Part 2 of 2.

What YouTube Doesn't Want You to See — Yesterday, the IDF did something innovative: it opened a channel on YouTube and posted videos to it that help explain why Israel is fighting Hamas. The site hosted about a dozen videos showing things like Israeli humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza …

Israeli troops dance as they await the order for a Gaza warIn a muddy field overlooking the smoke-blackened Gaza Strip skyline, young soldiers from an Israeli tank unit linked arms with euphoric civilians in energetic dance in anticipation of a possible ground invasion of Gaza. Huge speakers blasting religious songs fed the emotion as civilians cheered troops who'd take part in any ground invasion.

Much of the world's response is a false moral equivalence that simply encourages the terrorists

ASIA

 Anchors Aweigh, China BY: David Fullbrook | Asia Sentinel China’s top national defense spokesman, Huang Xueping, lit up the world’s airwaves on December 23 when he said yet again that his country is seriously considering adding an aircraft carrier to its navy, suggesting China remains determined to build a blue-water navy, the first since Admiral Zheng He was reined in by the Ming Dynasty in the 1400s.

 Global Insights: Chinese Navy Becomes Global Security PlayerBY: Richard Weitz | World Politics Review Beijing's unprecedented decision to join the anti-piracy fleet off Somalia's coast resulted from a pragmatic assessment of the likely net security benefits to China from the deployment. The international community, including the United States, should likewise approach the issue from a hardheaded perspective.

On the eve of the Czech Republic's assuming of the EU Presidency, RFE/RL correspondents Kathleen Moore and Oksana Pelenska spoke to Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra. They began by asking him to outline the CzechRepublic's priorities

Corruption in Bulgaria tests EU expansionFrustrations mount over Bulgaria – the most violent, corrupt, and poorest of EU members. Aid is being withheld as reform promises are made (and broken). Can it be fixed?

Pakistan Probe Links Lashkar to Attacks Pakistan's probe of the Mumbai terror attacks shows substantive links between the 10 gunmen and an Islamic militant group that its spy agency spent years supporting.

In the long run, John Maynard Keynes once said, we are all dead. True enough. And yet, in the longer run, Keynes, who died in 1946 at 62, has made a startling comeback. (By Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist)

Economy's toll: No bailout for the overqualified jobless With the economy in freefall, more and more people with college degrees and years of experience are finding themselves out of work. As weeks become months without work, job seekers are lowering their standards, fighting to fill jobs they used to manage. For many, they're hearing back from interviewers that they're overqualified. It's an increasingly common problem throughout California, where job losses were building even before the country officially entered the current recession a year ago

Onwards and upwardsTen years of the euro: as the currency enters its second decade, the value of membership is clearer than ever

Medvedev’s assertiveness troubles Putin Kremlin watchers say the Russian president appears to be frustrated that, in spite of his constitutional power as commander in chief, he is stuck in a subordinate role

Finance and production are not alternatives but complements. Successful economies need finance both

Fears for Iraqi prisoners after handover Washington must ensure that proper safeguards are in place before the US military cedes control of Iraqi prisons to Baghdad at midnight on Wednesday, according to human rights organizations

Security business scrutinises Iraq transition Executives of the private security industry, not least those based in Britain, will be watching with interest as Iraqi police and soldiers take the lead in providing security for government and business

Kiev and Moscow appeared to be edging towards an eleventh-hour resolution of their dispute over gas debt after Ukraine said it had settled its obligations to avoid a cut-off in supplies that could disrupt deliveries to Europe

 Israel, Hamas and the Seduction of Blind ForceBY: Gershom Gorenberg For angry people, force is seductive. It would have taken only a few moments of thought to predict that no Israeli politician would want to show weakness, to lift the siege because of rockets hitting Israeli towns -- especially a few weeks before an election.

How to Fix Your Life in 2009 Frugality is, once again, a virtue. To help you settle into this strange new world, WSJ reporters have dug deep into their beats to offer advice that will help you make your dollars work harder.

Cengiz Çandar

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